Recalling the longest drive in the history of the NFL

Watching Baltimore’s 24-9 victory over Indianapolis on the couch Sunday, Mrs. Gallery wondered: Do Baltimore fans still get extra joy out of beating Indianapolis, which stole the Colts from them in the dead of night 29 years ago?

Didn’t know the answer offhand, but the question did inspire Googling the phrase “Baltimore Colts Move to Indianapolis.”

A few items of interest:

• Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium was called “antiquated” as far back as the late 1960s, when the Colts were owned by Carroll Rosenbloom. Demands for substantial improvements and/or a new stadium began in 1969, although Rosenbloom cared not three years later when he became owner of the Los Angeles Rams, in a franchise swap with golfing buddy Robert Irsay.

• Irsay renewed efforts for a new stadium almost the moment he took ownership. While efforts by the city to do something amounted to nothing for a decade, Irsay began shopping the team all over the nation, including Los Angeles, Phoenix, Indianapolis, Memphis and Jacksonville.

• If you build it ... In 1982, construction of Indianapolis’ Hoosier Dome began. The facility cost $77 million and opened in August 1984, just in time for an NFL team to come play there (aside: the stadium was demolished in 2008 when it was replaced by Lucas Oil Stadium, which cost $720 million). Irsay visited the Hoosier Dome early in February 1984 and was “visibly moved” at the sight of the new stadium.

• On March 27, 1984, the Maryland Senate voted to give Baltimore the right to take the Colts through eminent domain (the power to take private property for public use after providing the owner with “just compensation”).

• Irsay made a secret deal with Indianapolis a day later. Fifteen moving vans were dispatched to relocate the team. The move came in the middle of the night before the Maryland House of Delegates and governor could sign the eminent domain bill and take control of the franchise. Within eight hours, the Colts were completely moved out of Baltimore.

Baltimore Mayor William Schaefer was moved to — to tears — when he found out what had transpired. Colts fans were livid, although they don’t really have a leg to stand on anymore. After all, Baltimore stole Cleveland’s team 12 years later.

Trivia time

What moving company did the Colts use when they relocated from Baltimore to Indianapolis?

Injury of the week

Just call it the mother of all foot faults, says Dwight Perry of The Seattle Times.

Belarusian tennis star Victoria Azarenka, 23, pulled out of the Brisbane International semifinals last week, citing an ingrown toenail from — get this — a bad pedicure.

“They cut a little bit too much, and it got infected,” the world’s top-ranked woman told the disappointed crowd. “The doctor said it happens a lot. It’s never happened to me before, so it’s something that I am definitely going to prevent for the next time.”

They said it

Hartley Miller of Prince George, B.C.’s CIRX Radio, scanning his list of 2013 predictions: “Baseball: The Dodgers break the Yankees’ record for the highest payroll not to win a playoff series.”